Friday, 31 August 1984

We
woke to find the overnight bus to Puno stuck in a river and we were soon the only
passengers left onboard. It was just
starting to get light and it was apparent that we were going nowhere in a hurry. The river was only two feet deep but it was
absolutely freezing - no great surprise as we were at an altitude of over 3500m
and it was mainly melt water. With no
alternative we got our bags off the roof and waded to the far bank. Here we dried off and joined a few of the
other passengers who had not walked off completely. After half an hour or so a truck crossed the
river and we all piled into the back. It
took us to Puno where we left our bags at the Tourist Office and made for the
jetty where we hired a boat to take us onto Lake Titicaca. Most tourists go out to see the Indians that
live on floating Reed Islands and it took a while to convince our seemingly dim
boatman that we had no interest in this at all but instead wanted to head out
into deeper water to look for Short-winged Grebe. Reluctantly he agreed (Mike rarely losing his
rag and threatening to withhold payment until we saw the grebes helped despite
there being no common language) and things were fine until we spotted a grebe
and insisted he slowed the boat right down so we could watch it. It then became apparent that we had a fairly
large hole in the bow that was only kept above the water line when he was
motoring along. His desire to only visit
the islands was now clear! We got back
to shore with limited bailing, paid him off and then spent the rest of the day
pottering around the edge of the lake, getting a bus ticket for the next stage
of our journey and eating.

open water of Lake Titicaca, not the best place to be in a holed boat!

Reed islands on Lake Titicaca

We
were getting the evening Arequipa bus, but only taking it half way as we wanted
to visit the high altitude (4000m+) salt lakes at La Salinas. Our driver assured us that he knew where we
wanted to get off and it felt as if no sooner had I dozed off than we were
pulling over in the middle of nowhere at about 1 am. This we were assured was our stop although a
strong wind and freezing temperature were hardly welcoming and came as quite a
shock after the warmth of the bus. I’m
not sure what I was expecting but it was only when the bus had left that we
spotted a large warehouse opposite us.
On investigation it had a partly open door, so we could at least get out
of the biting wind, but was virtually empty – a few empty salt sacks that we
used a supplementary bedding – and almost as cold inside as out.

We
were up at dawn to take stock of our surroundings. We’d been in the main building, a couple of
huts nearby appeared to be deserted and there was no one else around. The hope of there being a café where we could
get a hot drink was soon dashed but the lake was visible not too far away and fortunately
wasn’t dry as it is sometimes so we headed off towards it. Some ponds on the way were completely frozen
but the lake was too saline and an impressive number of flamingos were evident
round the edge. We spent several hours
birding the area, which was superb, the highlights being an amazing 5000+
Wilson’s Phalaropes, 1500+ flamingos (2/3 Puna, 1/3 Chilean and 4 Andean), 15
Andean Avocets and 10 Puna Plovers. Our
plan was to get back on the road and get a lift much of the way to Arequipa (60
kms away) where we wanted to stop in lower, more vegetated habitat. We sensibly had some food with us in case we
couldn’t get any at La Salinas (as proved to be the case) but assumed we would
find a stream relatively easily there and so didn’t take that much water. This wasn’t very well thought out as the
whole area was incredibly arid, it was after all a salt lake! Our plan on getting a lift was also flawed as
most vehicles travelled the route overnight while anything leaving Puno in the
morning would be passing in the afternoon.
We decided to start walking, in the hope of finding a stream, seeing
some different birds or flagging down a vehicle.

La Salinas salt deposits and a distant volcano

We had feared that the lake might be dry but that was clearly not the case

some of the nearer pools were frozen ...

but they still held Andean Avocets

a very stocky bird suited to surviving at high altitude

distant flamingos over La Salinas

even more distant flamingos at the far end of the lake

flamingos at La Salinas

never quite as approachable as one might wish

Puna Ground-Tyrant

leaving La Salinas, Mike bringing up the rear

looking back down the road to Arequipa, no vehicles, no water and few birds ...

road to Arequipa, still no vehicles, water or birds but at least the volcano El Misti was getting closer

After
about 20 kms, with no streams or vehicles and few birds, we overtook an old
lorry parked-up collecting wood. A km or
so later it caught us up and we were told it would eventually be going to
Arequipa so we climbed on top. 500m or
so later it stopped for more wood and slow progress ensued for what seemed like
most of the afternoon, although was perhaps just an hour or so. During this period Mike flagged down a
tourist bus – the only other vehicle seen all day - but for some reason that I
can’t now remember Nick and I decided to stick with the wood-cutters. We’d had enough after a couple more stops
with the road starting to drop off the plateau by way of some zig-zags and the
wood pile we were sitting on getting ever bigger and more uncomfortable. We’d probably done about 8 kms in over two
hours but at least we hadn’t been carrying our bags! We then walked another 5 km or so until dusk,
had another water ration and slept out in the lee of El Misti.

El Misti from our camp site

spectacular!

Nick crashed out, I was too cold to stay still

We awoke to a beautiful morning but we clearly hadn’t dropped much in altitude as the remaining water in my bottle had frozen and I felt as if I had. We packed up camp and continued birding 10 kms down the road to Arequipa seeing White-throated and Straight-billed Earthcreepers, Creamy-breasted Canasteros and Black-hooded Sierra-Finches. We then got a lift into town the last 8 kms on the back of a quarry lorry and ended up covered in chalk dust. In Arequipa there was no sign of Mike so we bought bus tickets back to Lima for that evening. While waiting at the bus station a couple of shifty locals tried a pincer movement on us with one distracting Nick from one side while the other sidled up towards his bag from the other. Fortunately we’d found a corner from where there ploy was obvious and they soon slipped off.

El Misti dominating Arequipa main square

We
arrived back in Lima the next day ahead of our flight back home the following
morning. Mike had by then gone back to
Paracas where he was spending another couple of days before flying home three
days later than us. We returned to the
airport, checked in and our flight was on time but Peru had one last card to
play. Hurtling down the runway for take-off
there was an almighty bang from the rear of the plane and the pilot slammed on
the brakes stopping us just before the runways end. We were taken back to the terminal and
disembarked. At this stage I thought it
was a puncture that could be repaired but after a couple of hours we were told
to collect our luggage and taken to a posh hotel in town where we’d be staying
until a replacement plane could be found.
This was expected to take three days!

Our
flight was headline news in the paper the next morning with the rear engine (it
was a DC10) having failed on take-off. A
few seconds later and we might not have stopped in time. The three days in Lima were pretty
boring. We had exit stamps in our
passports and so were reluctant to even leave the hotel after our encounters
with Lima police at the start of our trip.
We’d also used all our local money and didn’t want to change any more so
bird listed were restricted to the five species we could see from our
window. The only good news was that when
sorting out the holiday insurance Nick had paid a pound extra each for £20/day
travel delay cover.

Less
fortunate was Mike, who’d not got his own insurance thinking the same deal that
Nick got would do for him despite the dates not overlapping. On his last day, which was co-incidentally
our last, but two days after the insurance expired, he was robbed while getting
a taxi to the airport. He’d put his
shoulder bag with valuables down on the pavement while manoeuvring his rucksack
into the taxi and a bag-snatcher ran off with it. Luckily his passport, cash and plane tickets
were in a pouch around his neck but he lost his binoculars and camera.

It
was mostly a very enjoyable trip and Peru is a country I remember with
fondness, but was quite stressful at times – more so than a budget trip usually
is! I saw about 520 species of which
just over 300 were new, although a few inevitable misidentifications have come
to light as the literature has improved.
Many thanks to Barry, Mike and particularly Nick for excellent company
throughout.[blogged November 2012]

Sunday, 26 August 1984

Mike, Nick and I were in Ollantaytambo’s
main square soon after dawn and after about an hour hitched a lift on the top
of a soft drinks lorry bound for Quillabamba.
While we’d been waiting the village idiot threw a spear at a pig which
was unfortunate enough to wander into range and soon legged it off squealing
with a flesh wound I doubt the pig’s
owner would have been any more impressed than we were. The lorry struggled up the mountain road to
Abra Malaga (4315m) where we got off a couple of hours later. Our attempts at buying some bottles of drink
from the driver were unsuccessful, and had him climbing up onto the back to
check we’d not helped ourselves to his cargo, tempting as it had been sitting
on full crates of it. We birded the area
around the pass and crossed a nearby ridge to climb down into some brilliant
scattered stands of polylepis where I
saw Andean Tapaculo, 6 Stripe-headed Antpittas, Tawny Tit-Spinetails, a superb
Stout-billed Cinclodes and 3 Giant Conebills.
We then set off fairly steadily down the road to Canchillo (3260m),
hoping we might get a lift but there was virtually no traffic and we ended up
walking the whole way (18 km) arrived just as it was getting dark. There was a small café there which had been a two roomed hut in a previous life and we were fed, fortunately not Guinea Pig of which
several were running around, and put up for the night.

the road to Abra Malaga

Abra Malaga

looking back from Abra Malaga

Abra Malaga

Mount Veronica

we climbed down into a nearby valley to reach decent habitat ...

Polylepis woodland

Streak-throated Canastero

red-tone degradation not completely corrected for

Tit-like Dacnis

Giant Conebill playing hide and seek

another polylepis specialist

Tawny Tit-Spinetail

Stripe-headed Antpitta

one of six seen at Abra Malaga, this one was very approachable

one of the most memorable birds of the trip, it was brilliant!

walking down to Canchillo

The next morning we had a look around
Canchillo which was on the forest edge.
We then continued birding down the road towards San Luis (2740m), 20 kms
away. We were in superb forest all the way and were happy to spend
most of the rest of the day walking it.
Birds seen included Shining Sunbeam (they were as good as the name
suggests), Puna Thistletail, Rufous Antpitta (brilliant) and Crowned
Chat-Tyrant (something I’d very much hoped to see). San Luis was a truck stop restaurant which
served adequate food and after some persuading allowed us to sleep on the floor
in a shady corner. Considering we’d seen
very little traffic on the road it was surprisingly noisy at night.

Canchillo, early morning before we left for San Luis

White-browed Conebill

not quite as impressive as Giant but still a very smart bird

We spent all of the 23rd
August birding around San Luis. The area
further down the road was mainly cleared and we concentrated on an excellent
trail behind the Restaurant (Nick Gardner’s Antpitta trail) and the forest edge
back up the road. On the Antpitta trail,
as the light was beginning to go, a fantastic Undulated Antpitta appeared and
gave us excellent views. It was larger
than any antpitta I’d seen before and certainly one of the birds of the trip
for me. Earlier we’d seen Rufous-headed
Pigmy-Tyrant and Slaty-backed Nightingale-Thrush and frustratingly I saw an
unidentified male fruiteater in flight.
Another night on the restaurant floor celebrating what was proving to be
the most enjoyable part of the trip (no police encounters for a few days now!).

San Luis

looking further down the valley from San Luis

Scarlet-bellied Mountain Tanager

Rufous-breasted Chat Tyrant

they were common between Canchillo and San Luis

sunset at San Luis

The plan for 24th was to
start walking back up the road and after a couple of hours try our luck at
hitching back to Ollantaytambo and Cuzco.
This worked pretty much to plan with a pair of Grey-breasted
Mountain-Toucans seen just above San Luis a real bonus (and my only new bird of
the day, no. 288). I also saw 2 more
Rufous Antpittas, one in flight an done really well in vegetation by the
road. A pickup came by and we flagged it
down and were kindly given a lift back to Cuzco where we arrived after dark. The journey took ages and at times was quite
uncomfortable – freezing over the pass and at times quite wet –although the
scenery was spectacular when not hanging on for dear life! Early on we dived into our rucksacks to put
on all available clothes but even so I ended up getting a chill and felt pretty
rough for a few days after. Back in
Cuzco we gain took advantage of Barry and Margot’s hospitality at Casa Blanca.

Grey-breasted Mountain Toucan

a firm favourite

We had a day trip to Huarcapay Lakes on
25th where Bearded Mountaineer could be found. We were not disappointed and had excellent
views of two of this very impressive hummer.
Slender-billed Miner and Yellow-winged Blackbird were also new there but
I wasn’t feeling my best and don’t remember much else about the day, or a final
day around Cuzco which produced little, although White-browed Chat-Tyrants were
always nice to see. We said goodbye to
Barry and Margot and caught the overnight bus to Puno. We’d been rather put off the overnight train
as it had a reputation for pickpockets greatly reducing the odds of making the
journey with one’s luggage intact. What
we didn’t know was that our bus driver didn’t know the difference between a
road and a river as just before dawn the following morning, and 20 kms short of
Puno, we went the wrong way at a ford and got well and truly stuck. By the time we awoke and realised what was
going on (loud talking, people on the roof, watery view from my window) all the
other passengers had gone.